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"Every brand is human," and marketing and communications work better when managers remember that fact, says author Chris Malone. That's doubly true when things go wrong. "Customers are incredibly forgiving in the short term, but they are well aware of whether a company cares more about short-term financial gain or longer-term loyalty," Malone says.

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It's typical for LinkedIn users to have inboxes cluttered with spam from connections offering business opportunities, but to generate solid leads, it is best for users to develop relationships and trust among their connections. Posting valuable content on your feed and developing your own content through Pulse, LinkedIn's publishing platform, will strengthen your reputation and develop interest among connections.

Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress often are misused by various entities to back up sometimes conflicting cause-and-effect assertions about education policies, said Steven M. Glazerman, a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research. He and others say the data is specific and narrow on purpose and should not be used to make such claims. "They're committing the fundamental and almost inexcusable error of leaping to the causal conclusion they prefer, when hundreds of others are possible," said Grover M. "Russ" Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center for Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua held talks in Beijing on Thursday, leading observers to speculate that the companies are discussing how the iPhone could be marketed to the mobile carrier's 700 million customers. China Mobile didn't comment on the content of the talks. "Apple is keen on the China market, for sure ..." said Elinor Leung, an analyst with CLSA. "But the key is whether Apple and China Mobile can agree on the commercial terms, including shipment commitment and handset subsidy."

Indian tech companies are urgently in need of a new business model, says former HP India President Ganesh Ayyar, now CEO of MphasiS. "Unless Indian IT firms are able to bring a better value proposition and fresh perspective into the market, we will become heroes of yesteryears," he says.

When it comes to targeting companies, decision makers and appropriate opportunities, some salespeople do what's comfortable instead of what's most effective. Dave Kurlan explains why this happens and what you can do about it.